Saturday, October 14, 2017

My Notes from Lecture:In her thought-provoking lecture, biblical scholar Sr. Reid offers an exploration of Luke's portrayals of women and the challenges that his ambiguous message about Mary Magdalene and women proclaimers of the Word pose for today's Church. No evidence of her being a prostitute or sinner. Pope Gregory the Great conflated Luke 7. She is not the forgiven woman or woman caught in adultery or with anonymous woman who anointed Jesus. The Gospels actually say that she and other Galilean women ministered with Jesus, witnessed his death and was the first to encounter the Risen Christ. Luke 8 identifies Mary of Magdala, Joanna, Susanna as business partners with Jesu, accompanying him as he goes from town to town. In the story of the Risen Christ, the women tell Peter the good news of the Risen One, but, their word is rejected. No woman outside infant narrative speak, women choose the better part by remaining silent. Luke 24:9 Women are subject, but not believed in Resurrection narrativeLuke intent on restricting women to silent, passive roles.Reduces naming women until 24:10.Role of male disciples to give witness, primacy of Peter.If women desire to speak, they will not be believed.For men to interpret and proclaim, according to Luke.Witness of women dismissed as nonsense!Silencing of women in Luke and Acts.Now, in more recent years, Barbara Reid has a different perspective on Luke.In Luke 1 and 2, the women do speak in prophetic voice.There are positive portrayals of women in Luke.So now she believes we can conclude that there is a more ambiguous message in Luke about silencing of women and hearing their prophetic witness .In Luke there is significant proclamations by Mary and Elizabeth.Elizabeth interprets action of God in taking her humiliation away,Elizabeth gives a threefold blessing on Mary.The Magnificat has parallels in Exodus 15 as well as Hannah's prayer.This is a canticle that the early Christians sang. (Miriam, Hannah, and on the lips of Mary what God is doing for them. Not totally Luke's composition but he put this on Mary's lips because they were hymns that we sung in the early church.Mary, mother of Jesus, response echoes response to discipleship, "let it be done unto me according to your will." forshadows Jesus response.Mary's reflectionJesus feeding hunger and healing acts, and parables.Ana's canticle echoes Zechariah and arcs forward to road of Emmaus. She now believes that in Luke women are not more silent than men.Connections between Galilean women in Luke 8 and Luke 23 and 24.Different conclusion: Now 1-2 linked to 23-24Sr. Barbara sees rejection of women by male disciples in Luke 23 and 24 as the treatment of women at tomb, as affirmation of women who proclaimed the Word faithfully.Women are the connection back to Jesus ministry in Galilee.Women who saw crucifixion were ones who followed from Galilee Luke 8:1-3Luke 24:6-8 implies that these women were present in chapter 9 and 15Women as faithful discples both hear the word and act on the word.The Galilean women remembered his word, and acted on it, God's remembrance of mercy in saving action. The women are the good soil who bear fruit.The women at tomb remembered Jesus words in Galilee and continue his saving action.The women's spontaneous proclamation 24:10 continue to proclaim the word to the male apostles.Luke 24:10 the name of women witneses are given.Although Luke 23 and 24, can be read as affirming women's roles.In Acts, women fall completely silent.Luke has a double message, so,we must take a dual approach,enter into it and stand apart from it and raise questions for well-being of church and world. We should ask questions about why women cannot proclaim Gospel.Do not women and lay men merit preaching the mystery of faith?Preacher of Sunday homilies can be women of holiness, should not be limited to men.Need for a more incisive presence of women ministering in the church!Mary of Magdala and the Galilean women are beacons of hope that the word preached by women will be heard and preached.Images of God should not be limited to male only metaphors.Crisis of imagination when the only name for God is father.Myriad images in scripture for God, some are feminine, some are masculine.It matters. In our public prayer, how do we address God.If we only speak with male language, then we are saying that males are creating more in the image of God than women are .Need to rewrite liturgies and hymns."God is more than two men and a bird", as Sandra Schneiders said.

Presider: Welcome everyone. As I mentioned in my “pre-liturgy preface,”
today’s liturgy takes us back in time when many of us and our parents began
evolving from the Church of our childhoods (pre-1962) to where and what it is
today…and also to where the promise of Pope Francis may take us in the future.
As we know, we will have an opportunity to voice those ideas in our homily
shortly, but right now let us place ourselves in this today…now…in St.
Andrew’s Church…at a MMOJ liturgy. (pause)And as we gather ourselves together in mind
and spirit, let us remember we are truly a holy people. So, let us sing what
might be called “our camp song” … Karen Drucker’s “We are holy.”

We are Holy, You are holy, I am holy,We are holy….

Opening Hymn:“Sing A New Church”#413 vs. 1,3,5

Opening Prayer

Presider:Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican
Council with this edited prayer.Almighty God, in you we place our
confidence, not trusting in our own strength to renew the people of your holy
community everywhere on planet earth.Look down kindly on our efforts to regenerate ourselves so that we may
respond to your Spirit leading us on to be worthy witnesses to your messages
today and all the days of this council.To you be love, power and glory forever and ever.Amen.And to Pope John’s prayer, we add…

ALL: Loving
God, bless all of us gathered here now and all of those of our community who
are not with us today.Raise up in all
of us the spirit that filled Saint John years ago in undertaking such a blessed
mission and supported him throughout till his return to you.We ask this of you, in the names of Jesus - our
Brother, and the Spirit - our Wisdom and Sustainer.

Penitential Rite and Community
Forgiveness

(Let us pause briefly while we reflect on our need to
grow more in love for one another.)

Presider:Compassionate God, to whom all hearts are
open, no desires unknown, and from whom no secrets can be hidden, cleanse our
hearts by the inspiration of Holy Wisdom.We thank you for sending your Spirit to us so that, with her strength,
we may live more fully according to your will.Through your grace, all peoples, wherever they may be on this earth, are
one family …and you have made every one of us worthy to be called your sacred
people.

ALL:Christ
Jesus, we ask you to instill in us the virtues of pardon and peace so that we
may – in turn – learn to be forgiving to our brothers and sisters, whoever and
wherever they may be. Give us the courage and strength to extend your merciful
presence that is your gift - through us –to all those with whom you share your unending love.May this be so, without exception.Amen.

Presider:The preface to each of the four readings is:
“Veni, Sancte Spiritus” to the music of the Taize community.

ALL: Veni, Sancte Spiritus.

First reading: This is a
selection from: Lumen Gentium, the Constitution on the Church

ALL: Veni, Sancte Spiritus.

Second
reading: This is a selection from Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on
the Sacred Liturgy.

ALL: Veni, Sancte Spiritus.

Third
reading:This is a selection from
Gaudium et Spes, the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

ALL: The acclamation before and after the fourth reading: Alleluia (Celtic Version).

Fourth
reading:This is selection from Dei
Verbum, the Constitution on Divine Revelation

Shared Homily/Community Reflections

Homily starter: The “performance”
of John XXIII and the “promise” of Francis

Profession of Faith

ALL:We
believe in God, the creator of all, whose divinity infuses all existence
with the sacred, and who’s very being is the heart of the universe.We believe in Jesus, the Christ, the
loving expression of God to humankind, the sacred messenger of God’s word, the
carrier of God’s healing and boundless compassion.We believe in the Spirit, the breath
of God in the cosmos who strengthens us to be instruments of peace and justice
in a hope-filled world.We surely
believe in all this!

Prayers of the Community

Presider:We are a people of faith; we believe in the
power of prayer. We are always mindful of God’s unconditional love and care for
each of us.And so, we bring the needs
of the people to our loving and merciful God.After each intercession, our
response is: Compassionate God,
bless our petitions.

God of healing and grace, we
ask for your loving care for those caught up in the devastating fires in California
and for those who risk their time and safety to be of help to them. Compassionate God, bless our petitions. (intentions)

Presider:Healing God, we ask you to strengthen us in
our concerns and care for one another, here and throughout the world,
especially at this time of extreme need. We ask you to bless our efforts for
justice and equality so that, with our sisters and brothers, we may promote
cultures of peace and nonviolence everywhere.We make this prayer in the name of Jesus, the Christ.Amen.

Presider:Jesus, who has often sat at our tables, now
invites all of us to join him at his.Everyone is welcome to share in this meal. (The invitation is to everyone to join around God’s family table.)

ALL:Loving
and caring God, we – your people – are united in this sacrament by our common
love of Jesus.Through your universal
presence, we are in communion with everyone, everywhere, who shares your gift
of compassion especially to all those who are marginalized and oppressed.May we love tenderly, do justice, and walk
humbly with you in solidarity with our sisters and brothers.May we live always as prophetic witnesses to
the gospel of Jesus, the Christ.Amen.

Presider:Let us lift up our hearts.

ALL: We lift them up to our gracious God who has
gifted us with overflowing love so that we may share it with everyone,
everywhere.

Presider: Let us recognize
the presence of our God who dwells in each one of us.

ALL: Namaste!Namaste! Namaste! (3 x)

Eucharistic
Prayer

Voice 1:Ever loving
God, we do well always to give you thanks for your bonding with us, your family.In you we live and move and have our very
being.That Spirit, who raised Jesus
from the dead, is the foretaste and promise of the paschal feast of heaven. Her
dwelling in us gives us the hope of unending peace and joy with you. And so, in
gratitude, we SING with
thankful praise….

ALL:Holy,
Holy, Holy God, God of power, God of light.Heaven and earth are full of your glory.Hosanna in the highest.Blessed are
all who come in the name of our God.Hosanna in the highest; Hosanna in the highest.

Voice 2:We thank you
for the gift of Jesus in history - and the gift of Jesus in faith. On earth,
Jesus burned with the constant vision of his mission.He revealed you to us through his
compassionate life well-lived.And he
showed us, through his example, not only how we should live, but also for what
we may pay the same price as he did.

Voice 3:And when his
time on earth had come to an end, Jesus – aware of and accepting his destiny –
gave up his life for the values that he deeply believed, lived and taught…his
conviction that love is stronger than death.He even provided an example of this wisdom for all people in all ages to
come.He did so by opening wide his arms
on a cross…and then died. The Spirit, who raised him from the dead showed us by
her action that life is eternal and that love is immortal.Jesus, the Christ, lives with us today …as he
will through the end of time.

ALL: (With an outstretched arm, we pray the consecration
together):We remember
the gift that Jesus gave us on the night before he died.He gathered with his friends to share his
final Passover meal. And it was at that supper that Jesus took bread, blessed,
broke and shared it with them saying: take this, all of you, and eat it.This bread is you; this bread is me.We are one body, the presence of God in the
world.Do this in memory of me.(Pause)

In the same way, Jesus took the cup of wine, blessed
it and gave it to them saying: take this all of you and drink it.This wine is you; this wine is me.We are one blood, the presence of God in the
world.Do this in memory of me.

Communal Blessing of Cups and Plates

All: (With an outstretched
arm we pray)

Loving God, Source of all Being, in this moment we
are gathered as a community to celebrate and remember your extravagant
affection for your creation. As we pause to recall how wondrous is your love
for us, we ask you to bless these cups and plates made by human hands and
intended as vessels to hold the Precious Body and Blood of Jesus our Brother
during liturgical celebrations. May they be symbols of Jesus’ promise to be
with us always and his mandate to be His body and blood to each other. We ask
this in the name of Jesus, Eternal Word, and Sofia Holy Spirit Wisdom. Amen.

(Bridget Mary sprinkles the cups and plates with holy
water and then the community does the same while chanting)

(Bridget Mary sprinkles holy water as Alleluia is sung during blessing)

ALL: Through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, in
the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Creator God,
forever and ever... (sung)…Amen. (X times!)

The Prayer of Jesus

ALL: (holding hands):Our Father and Mother, who are in heaven, blessed is your name…

Presider:Understanding God, we have just prayed that
“your kindom may come” among us.Strengthen us with your grace and love so that we can truly open our
hearts to make it happen in the fullness of time.

The Sign
of Peace

Presider: Jesus, you said to
your disciples, “My peace I leave you; my peace I give you.”Look on the faith of those gathered here
today and …

ALL:….
grant us that peace.O Loving God,
following the example of Jesus and with the strength of the Spirit, help us
spread that peace throughout the world, to everyone, everywhere, no
exceptions.Amen.

Presider:May the peace of God be always with us, and
let us extend that peace to one another as we join hands in a circle of love
and sing:Let there be peace on earth#532using the following:

(“…with God as creator, family all are we…” and “With every breath I take, let this be...”)

Litany for the Breaking of the Bread,

Presider:Loving God… All: you call us to Spirit-filled service and to live the Gospel of nonviolence,
peace and justice, we will live justly.

Presider:Loving God… All: you call us to be your presence in the world and to be bearers
of understanding and compassion, forgiveness and healing everywhere in your
name.We will love tenderly.

Presider:Loving God… All: you call us to speak truth to power and live with equality
towards all.We will walk humbly with
you.

Presider:This is Jesus, who liberates, heals, and
transforms us and our world.He calls us
to share our bread on the altar of the world.Everyone is invited to partake of this sacred banquet of love.ALL:We are the Body of Christ.

Pre-Communion Prayer

Presider: Gracious God, as
we come to share the richness of your table, we cannot forget the poverty of so
many of our brothers and sisters, our families and neighbors.

Men:We cannot eat this bread and forget those who are
hungry.O God, your world is one world
and we are stewards of its nourishment for all your people.

Women:We cannot drink this wine and forget those
who are thirsty.O God, this very earth
and its people cry out for environmental justice.

ALL:We cannot
listen to your words of peace and not grieve for a world at war’s doors.

Communion:Instrumental

PostCommunion Hymn:“Here I Am God” #377 all verses

Prayer
of Thanksgiving after Communion

Presider:Loving God, may this Eucharist in which we
shared Christ’s healing love deepen our oneness with you and with one
another.May wonder and thanksgiving
fill our hearts with grace and gratitude as we experience the cost of
discipleship with you as we heard in today’s Gospel.And may we continue to realize that Jesus
lives in us and that we reflect him to our brothers and sisters.ALL:Amen.

Introductions,
Gratitudes, and Announcements

Community Blessing

Closing
Community Blessing

(Let us
all extend an arm to one another a mutual blessing)

ALL:May you,
our gracious God, bless everyone in our community as we do our best to “pay
forward” the cost of discipleship.We
ask this of you -- in the name of God, our Creator -- in the name of Jesus, our
bearer of the message of love -- and in the name of the Spirit, our inspiration
and strength.May we reflect them as we
care and minister to one another and to all those whom we meet on our journey.May we always remember, with gratitude, that
we are the face of God to the world. Amen.

Closing Hymn:The Spirit is A-Movin”#454, verses 1, 4 and 5.

Closing
Community Commissioning:

Presiders: As we leave here
in the peace of Christ, let us be the sacred people that God created us to
be.Let our service continue.

ALL: Thanks be
to God. Let it be so. Alleluia, let us live the gospel!

Lee and Kathryn

Bridget Mary and Kathryn, "the twins"

Jack Duffy one of founding members of MMOJ Community, returns to Florida for a visit

MMOJ Community invites everyone to come to a Dutch-Treat dinner after weekly liturgy. All are welcome!

On Sunday, October 8, 2017, I attended the NOVA Community's liturgy in Arlington VA. NOVA is an intentional Catholic Eucharistic Community whose members gather at 10:00 AM at Kenmore Middle School for Mass.Marie Pinho RIP, a member of NOVA Community, donated funds for the growth of our ARCWP movement. I gave an update on our recent trip to Ireland to meet with women called to ordination. This outreach was funded in part by the Marie Legacy Fund. See Aug 1-31 for update on blog about liturgies and meetings in Ireland. The generosity of donors, like Marie, helps us continue our work for justice and equality for women through ordination in a renewed priestly ministry that serves inclusive, egalitarian communities in the Roman Catholic Church. We are leading the church into its future now. I rejoice in all those who accompany us on our journey to live the fullness of God's love in a discipleship of equals. To find out more about us and to participate in our mission, visit our website at www.arcwp.org Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP,sofiabmm@aol.com

https://youtu.be/oZGrAYr3esIOutstanding resource on prominent women in the Gospel and St. Catherine of Siena who reflect hospitality, friendship, and table companionship. She advocates for women preaching Gospel as examples of "incisive female presence" and contemporary apostles and missionary disciples. "We are each called to go and tell", like St. Mary of Magdala.

There were two major winners in Trump’s long-expected executive order to gut ObamaCare’s contraceptive mandate: the Catholic bishops, who ginned up this particular culture-war debacle in the first place, and the evangelical right, which was happy to take up the fight once they realized it meant limiting women’s reproductive choices.

The new rules, which went into immediate effect, create exceptions that are anything but limited. They are, in fact, there for the taking. Any “entities” that claim not only religious but also “moral” objections to birth control are entitled to refuse to comply with the federal contraception mandate that until last Friday was enabling 55 million women to receive birth control without charge as part of their work- or college-related health insurance coverage.

This, of course, is exactly what the Catholic bishops were gunning for all along—a total exemption from the mandate for anyone who wants it merely for objecting to the provision of birth control with no work-around for the women involved. “These regulations are a cheaply calculated move by President Trump to pander to his ultra-right base. This purely political decision is not about protecting religious freedom, but about privileging one set of special interests at the expense of women nationwide,” said Sara Hutchinson Ratcliffe, vice president of Catholics for Choice, in a statement.

Coupled with the administration’s new guidance on religious liberty, which leans heavily toward the right-wing definition of religious liberty, it’s clear that these culture war battles over religiously motivated opt-outs and exemptions will become a permanent feature of our society as religious conservatives seek to consolidate and expand their gains. Looking ahead to the religious liberty fights of the future, there are three lessons that can be learned for the fight over the contraceptive mandate.

The first is that narratives, not facts, move culture war debates. It doesn’t matter that an IOM panel recommendedthe inclusion of the contraceptive mandate in the list of no-brainer preventative services that should be included in the basic cost of a health care plan. It doesn’t matter that all the evidence shows that contraceptives are overwhelmingly safe and beneficial to women and society. It doesn’t matte that a lack of contraceptive access, especially to the more effective long-term kinds, drives up rates of unplanned pregnancy and abortion. It doesn’t matter that a ridiculously high percentage of Catholic women use “artificial” means of birth control or that emergency contraceptives aren’t abortifacients, even as the Catholic bishops screamed that Catholics were being forced to effectively subsidized abortion.

It was that narrative, that believing Catholics were being forced to go against their religious beliefs to support abortion, which—just like Trump does with his racist dog-whistles—exposed the old scars of anti-Catholicism and turned many conservative Catholics against not only the mandate but the ACA and the Obama administration. It was the Becket Fund’s stroke of genius to further perfect and humanize that narrative by making the self-sacrificing Little Sisters of the Poor the face of gentle Catholic opposition to the big government’s abortion-pill pushing.

The second lesson is that culture war politics make strange bedfellows. Historically and theologically, most evangelical denominations haven’t been particularly hostile to contraception. But as I’ve noted here in RD, that began to change around the early 2000s. Not only did evangelicals cotton to the sexually conservative framework of Humanae Vitae at a time that the idea of male headship was making a resurgence in the evangelical mainstream, but they instantly recognized the beauty of the Catholic bishops linking of birth control and same-sex marriage under a religious liberty frame.

But the most important lesson is that from small wedges, big things can come. What is now a major culture war issue began as an obscure insurance matter. The Catholic bishops worked throughout the 1980s and 1990s to ensure that Catholic health plans participating in government programs were allowed to take a pass on providing abortion and then contraception. They ratcheted up the pressure for exemptions when the FDA approved emergency contraceptives in the late 1990s.

Right now it’s bakers and photographers who are making the strongest claims for religious liberty exemptions because they’re asserting that it’s a matter of creative expression. But what about the future? With everything from mortgage lenders to trucking companies asserting they are being guided by “Christian principles,” isn’t it just a matter of time before one such company asserts their right, as a closely-held Christian company, to refuse serve a person or persons with what they consider a sinful lifestyle, be it a same-sex couple or a transgender individual, in a matter as personal and explicitly tied to couple-hood as getting a mortgage or moving house?

Already Cherry Creek Mortgage, which calls itself a “Christian-based company,” has allegedly refused to cover the wife of one of their female employees in the company’s health plan, prompting a lawsuit in California. It’s seems doubtful that given it’s current composition and past sympathy toward brazenly broad religious liberty claims the Supreme Court will fail to support these obviously oppressed Christians. The only question now is how far they will get with their claims.

"Attendees reflected on the pains of exclusion, inequality and injustice that women experience in the Church and in various communities. To this, the women responded by making a commitment to work collaboratively for the transformation of many practices that promote exclusion and marginalisation of women.

Perhaps this event could serve as a reminder that “we are pilgrims on a journey”, and that in this very journey of our faith, we continue to recognise Christ in each other, and in servanthood."

Bridget Mary's Comment: This is our profound spiritual reality. We are one . Each of us is a reflection of the Holy One and and a member of God's family. Our diversity is a gift we are called to celebrate .

"Oneness is not a Miracle. It is the Diversity of the One that is the Miracle!

Since you weren’t there I’ll try to write a summary of my
extemporaneous graveside service:

Joyce Boin

When asked about death
Jesus is said to have said that our God will say “come blessed one, I have been
waiting for you since the foundation of the world “. What Jesus didn’t know
that we now know is that the foundation of the world is at least 13 billion
years ago, that fragments of dust banged and expanded for billions of years
until one just happened to be where light and warmth was perfect to cause some
molecules to become fluid. Then water ran for billions of years until
amazingly, the first cell divided and life. Billions of years of creatures
evolved into human. Humans have continued to refine and one day one perfect
little one was born who was such a joy to everyone her parents called her
Joyce. We here all have known Joyce. She had her own unique way of being and
loving that the world before never saw and will never be duplicated. So we know
that as we return this little bit of stardust to the earth that it miraculously
came from, we are not burying Joyce. Joyce’s love lives in eternal life and
lives in each of us. Take a minute of silence now to think of one way in which
Joyce will continue to live in you.

After a minute about 5 or 6 people shared poignant remembrances
then we concluded with everyone raising their hand in blessing. Our loving God,
we are grateful for the wonderful gift of the universe, for our place in it,
for all of our loved ones and especially that we have had Joyce in our lives.
As we return this stardust to the earth from which she came, we trust your plan
that we continue to love each other as Joyce did and as you give us to do.
Amen.